


Too Many Bears

by Fire_Bear



Series: Bear of my Heart [3]
Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Fluff and Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-19
Updated: 2015-03-19
Packaged: 2018-03-18 15:23:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,345
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3574545
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fire_Bear/pseuds/Fire_Bear
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Arthur's moving in with Alfred for college - and brings his teddy bears with him...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Too Many Bears

Arthur had fully intended to stay with his parents during his college years – it was cheaper and he wouldn't have to share a room with anyone. Then, just before the academic year started, Alfred had come to him and shyly asked if he would be willing to move in. There was no hesitation in his answer and, after convincing his parents, he had begun to pack.

A week later, Alfred came round to pick him up. The American was rather surprised at the amount of boxes. "Woah..." he breathed, staring at the tottering piles in Arthur's room.

"Er," said Arthur, blushing slightly. "Sorry – I have more things that I thought I did."

"It's fine," said Alfred with a grin. "Just gonna take longer to get them all in the car- Actually, there might not be enough room for 'em all."

"Mum already offered to drive some of the... 'less important', shall we say, boxes later in the week. If... that's okay with you...?"

Alfred's smile softened and he closed the distance between them so he could pull Arthur into a hug. The smaller man made himself comfortable, tucking his head beneath his boyfriend's chin. "'Course it's fine!" he said, pressing a kiss to the top of Arthur's head. "Mi casa es su casa."

* * *

Three days later, Arthur was finishing unpacking his books whilst his boyfriend was at work. It was just as he opened the last box when he heard the buzzer. Hurriedly, he stood and made his way over to answer. "Hello?" he said.

"Arthur, dear, I have the rest of your things here."

"Ah, great! I'll be down in a moment."

And so the afternoon was taken up by moving boxes and entertaining his mother with tea and biscuits. Once she had left, he finished with the books and excitedly opened the new boxes. Each one contained his teddy bears. Reverentially, he removed the teddy he had gotten from Alfred all those years ago and hugged it tight. Then he continued unpacking the rest.

By the time Alfred unlocked the front door of the flat, Arthur had balanced teddy bears all over the living room and was debating where to put the rest. He stopped, though, and hurried to the hall. Returning Alfred's happy grin, Arthur declared, "My mum brought over the last of my boxes – I'm officially moved in!"

"Awesome!" cried Alfred and hurried forward to pull Arthur into a tight hug. "Are we gonna celebrate later?"

"Maybe once I've finished unpacking." Arthur pulled away and led Alfred further into their home, towards the living room. "Would you like to help? I should probably get your input."

"My input?" asked a bewildered Alfred.

"Yes, look," said Arthur, sweeping his arm to encompass the living room and its new additions. "What do you think?" He let go of Alfred's hand and moved forward, stopping next to an open box and removing the teddy Alfred he had made.

"Wh-? Are those...? You brought your teddies?" Alfred stuttered. Arthur turned back to him and noticed his expression of shock – and was that horror? The younger man froze and stared back at Alfred, watching him carefully. "You brought... all of them?!"

"Uh huh." Arthur nodded, clutching the teddy bear tightly. "Is-Is that a problem?"

"Well, yeah. Where are we gonna put them all? We can't have _all_ of them. Especially if you're gonna buy more."

They stared at each other, Arthur's expression now mirroring Alfred's. "Do you want me to get rid of them?" Arthur whispered, his eyes slipping to the floor.

"Can't ya just leave them at home, honey? You could, I dunno, visit them or something."

"What's the point in that?" snapped Arthur, his gaze returning back to Alfred's face so suddenly that the other flinched. "These are-are for my enjoyment! Each one has a memory attached to them! I can't leave them with my parents! Besides which, they'd likely get rid of them all. Sell them off or donate them or-or something worse!"

"Artie..." murmured Alfred, taking a step towards him. However, Arthur flinched, his arms wrapping around the teddy protectively. "Listen. There's not enough room for them _all_. Maybe you _should_ donate them-"

The Brit exploded. "This is a part of me! Are you saying you don't like it?!"

"No, no!" cried Alfred, taking another step towards him. "That's not what I meant at all, Art! I love you, all of you, but-"

"But you want me to get rid of something that makes me who I am!"

"That's-! No! I didn't say that- Listen to me!" Alfred was snippy now.

Crossing his arms, Arthur glared at Alfred. "I heard you – you want me to choose between my precious teddy bears and living here."

Alfred paled. "No, never," he said, so quietly Arthur almost didn't catch it. "I just- Arthur, babe, you're smart but you're not thinking about this logically. Do they even _do_ anything? Do you cuddle all of them? Wouldn't it be better to give them to children who will take care of 'em and treat them just as well as you. Y'know, like Toy Story 3."

"I won't!" shouted Arthur, feeling himself tearing up. He strode to where he had placed his most precious one, the one Alfred had gotten him. It was pride of place on the mantelpiece. Lifting it, he turned back to Alfred, hugging it tightly. "These are all precious to me! They all have a place in my heart – and I can't live without them. Just like you can't live without that stupid XBox!"

"That's not the same!"

"It is!"

"It's not – you can talk to loads of people with the XBox and you can watch DVDs and stuff! You can't do that with teddy bears!"

"Y-You-! That's not the _point_!"

"But it is!" cried Alfred who looked near to tears himself. "An XBox is _actually useful_ -" He stopped himself with a gasp, as if he knew it had been the wrong thing to say. And it certainly was.

"Fine!" cried Arthur, storming towards Alfred.

"What are you-?"

"If you can't- If you can't accept me like this, then- Then I can't stay here!" Arthur yelled, trying to stop himself from crying. He darted around Alfred before the American could stop him and paused at the doorway. "I-I _hate_ you!" he hissed back at Alfred, throwing the Alfred-teddy at him. It bounced harmlessly off his chest but Alfred still flinched. Finally, Arthur spun around and rushed from the flat, slamming the door behind him.

He turned up on his parents' doorstep, clutching his old teddy bear, bawling.

* * *

After crying till he ran out of tears, comforting from his mother, wise words from his father, a hearty breakfast and a good clean, Arthur was outside the door of his boyfriend's flat with the teddy bear under an arm. _His_ flat, he reminded himself. All he had to do was use _his_ key to unlock _his_ door so he could talk to _his_ boyfriend.

The only problem was that he wasn't sure he wanted a confrontation.

Admonishing himself, he took a deep breath and inserted his key. After unlocking the door and pushing it open, he was surprised to find Alfred standing in the hall, staring at him with wide eyes. Arthur froze.

Then, quite suddenly, Alfred rushed towards him and swept Arthur into his arms. Arthur heard a sob escape one of them as he buried his head into Alfred's shoulder, the bear falling to the floor. Words weren't needed – they knew they had both forgiven each other – but Alfred was chanting it into Arthur's ear and Arthur was clutching at him and whispering his own apology and Alfred was pulling him even closer.

Eventually, they disentangled themselves, shut the front door and made their way to the living room. Not much had changed in the few hours Arthur hadn't been there – the only noticeable difference was the empty boxes. Alfred had removed all the teddies and placed them in different spots: on the mantelpiece, the couch, the floor. The room was practically drowning in teddy bears.

"Er," he said. "I... I missed you."

"Ah," breathed Arthur, his heart swelling with happiness and love. "Well, I've been doing some thinking and-"

"Please don't leave!" cried Alfred, looking quite dismayed. "I really don't care if we're tripping over teddies every morning – I just want you here!"

Arthur stared at him for a moment, a blush forming. Slowly, a smile spread across his face and he chuckled softly. "Oh, Al. I'm not going to leave. I was... actually going to agree with you. We should donate all of these. Ah!" He spun round and hurried to the hall, scooping up the forgotten bear. "Except for this one, at least," he explained as he returned.

Once again, Alfred launched himself at Arthur. This time, he kissed the smaller man, hugged him tight and then let him go. "I have an awesome idea! Don't do anything! Wait here!" With a blur of motion, the front door slammed shut and Arthur was left to blink in confusion amongst his precious memories.

* * *

When Alfred finally returned, Arthur was seated on the floor amongst his teddies, hugging his earliest one tightly to his chest. The American hurried in, holding onto a large notebook of some sort.

"What's that?" asked Arthur. "You've been ages."

"Look!" Alfred held up the book so he could see the front cover. Large letters proclaimed it to be a scrapbook, little teddy bear illustrations decorating it.

"Um...?"

"I was thinking," continued Alfred, not acknowledging Arthur's confusion, "that what we should do, right, is take pictures of your bears. We'll keep a picture of all of them, but get rid of most of 'em." He came closer and knelt before Arthur, patting the bear he held. "You should keep this one 'cause you love it the most. And we'll the keep the rest in here." He brandished the book. "I just needta get my camera. Ah, and we could totally set them up to make little scenes and stuff. And then we take them to some kindergarten or something and give 'em to the kids there."

For a few moments, Arthur could only stare. How had he managed to end up with such a caring and thoughtful boyfriend? With a sudden bark of laughter, he threw his arms around Alfred and tugged him into a hug, kissing his cheek. "Thank you!" he cried, tightening his grip on his precious boyfriend.

"Anything for you, babe!"

By the end of the day, they had filled the scrapbook and packed away all of the teddies bar one – a well-worn teddy with a stars and stripes ribbon.

* * *

After they had taken the teddy bears to several different establishments, Arthur thought that the flat seemed a little empty.

* * *

Bemoaning the fact that he had had to go in to college while Alfred had his day off, Arthur trudged up the stairs to their flat. If they had both been off, they could have gone out together or even snuggled on the couch, watching a film. Well, maybe they could finish off the day like that; but the orientation had been tedious and had Arthur wishing to be back home.

He opened the door and made sure to close and lock it – it was unlikely they would be going back out again. "Al?" he called, unsure why his boyfriend hadn't come to meet him in the hall as usual. "Where are you?"

"Living room!" came the reply. "But... Close your eyes on the way in!"

"Huh?" Arthur moved to the door. "What are you talking-?"

"Just-! Do it. Please?"

"Tsk. Fine," sighed Arthur, closing his eyes before entering the room. Instantly, he felt Alfred at his side, guiding him somewhere. He was lowered into the couch and Alfred's hands left him: Arthur pouted at the loss of his boyfriend. "What's going on?" he asked.

Before Alfred could answer, Arthur heard a sound he had never heard in the flat before. It sounded like a meow. Like a cat. His eyes flew open and he looked round, Alfred wincing and pouting at the loss of his surprise. Arthur glanced to the floor and found the source.

Two cats sat there, both gazing up at him. One was orange and white, his ears flat against his head, green eyes aloof and almost glaring. The other was significantly larger, thick fur around his neck giving the appearance of a mane. He even had little marks around his eyes as though he was wearing glasses.

"I was totally only gonna get one 'cause, I thought, well, you're missing all your teddies and I thought we could get a pet you could cuddle and we could name it Teddy. So I went to an animal shelter and saw that one" - he pointed at the haughty one - "and thought it was perfect. I mean, look at those eyes; just as pretty as yours. But, when I picked him up, the other one leapt at me and he started squirming and so I got the two of them. We can call one of 'em Teddy and the other Bear. And Teddy can be short for Theodore. What d'ya think?"

Arthur stared at him for a moment. "But... How much did they cost? And we have to buy all the things-"

"Nah, don't worry 'bout that. We used to have a cat – the years you weren't here – and we just stored all the cat stuff in the attic after it managed to get itself run over." Alfred grinned. "C'mon. I know you think they're both cute."

"Sh-Shut-" began Arthur but he stopped and looked back at the cats, brow furrowed in thought. Hesitantly, he held his hand out. Instantly, the haughty cat moved forward and butted it with his head. "Hello, Teddy," Arthur murmured.

"Well?"

"You spoil me too much," said Arthur, smiling as Bear demanded his attention. "Once we've got these two settled in, I should give _you_ a present."

Alfred's eyes twinkled merrily as they gazed at each other. "I can't wait."

**Author's Note:**

> At the time, this was inspired by a thought of "I really need to get rid of some of these teddies". And, at the time, I thought it was unlikely that I'd get around to it. But I did. 
> 
> I still have way too many.
> 
> If I ever get a pet again/have kids, someone else needs to name them because I am apparently really crap at it.


End file.
